Keratin has high value in cosmetics and medical industry. The keratin source usually used may be from several origins: may be derived from human hair fibers, wool, animal hair, feathers and horns.
Existing documents relating to keratin hydrolysates, and its use in cosmetics have been described in. U.S. Pat. No. 7,220,405. The patent describes a cosmetic formulation which has peptides base, like conditioners and hair dye creme lotion, body moisturizers, skin tone cream and nail enamels. Peptides have been described as being able to connect with high affinity to hair, skin and nails. Thus, this work aimed the development of personal care products containing peptides, from collagen, elastin, soybean, casein, silk among others, coupled directly or via a spacer to the product active agent.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,186,188 describes the use of trypsin to hydrolyse proteins in general, generating polypeptides from 200 to 2000 Da with positive charge that can be used in cosmetic formulations to hair, nails and skin.
US 2006/134092 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,395,613 describe peptidases (enzymatic characterization work) produced by microorganisms of the genus Bacillus and Micrococcus sedentarius, able to degrade proteins highly resistant to denaturation and degradation, including keratin, prion and collagen.
The above patents were aimed at describing a Bacillus or Micrococcus sedentarius peptidase towards the degradation of proteins that are difficult to degrade, like keratin.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,858,215 presents a method for the treatment of hyperkeratinized tissues in mammals using proteolytic enzymes originally developed for the hydrolysis of proteins associated with food and currently is commonly used to soften meat and improve the food taste. The composition of the product developed in this patent has softening enzymes, which soft and exfoliates skin hyperkeratinized formations, as callosities, granules, drying, scaly skin and keratosis without damaging the surrounding tissues by selective lysis of hyperkeratinized tissues. The enzymes used (1 to 15% in the formulation) were the subtilisin Carlsberg and a fungal peptidase of Aspergillus oryzae. 
JP 2009298737 further disclosed a method for producing keratin from poultry feather. The feather is washed with a neutral detergent, rinsed with water and dried. The feather is mixed with 50 mL of a thioglycolic acid solution having 0.2 mol/L concentration adjusted to pH 11.0 with sodium hydroxide, stirred and shaken for 48 hours, the solution is adjusted to 30 C and adjusted to pH 7 with acetic acid. The solution is mixed with 50 mL of sodium bromate solution having 0.4 mol/L concentration by gradually adding the sodium bromate solution over 4 hours, then the solution is allowed to stand for 20 hours. Then insoluble matter is filtered off from the solution, the solution is adjusted to approximately pH 3.5 with acetic acid, a polymer substance is precipitated and the precipitate is recovered by centrifugal separation. The precipitate is made into a paste state acidic with acetic acid and preserved at a dark cold place.
The process suggested by the above prior art are tedious and time consuming. Hence, there is a need for an alternate process which is simpler thus avoiding the tediousness of the process disclosed in the prior art.
Additionally, there is a need for a quicker process thus allowing large-scale productions of the keratin production to be carried out in timely manner thus increasing the productivity and efficiency of such process.